This invention relates to a support for a flat workpiece to be picked up by a machine and, more particularly, the invention is concerned with providing a compliant surface formed of upstanding bristle-like elements which allows a tined end-effector to be plunged thereinto under a workpiece positioned thereon so that the workpiece can be picked up and transported without disturbing the original orientation.
Automation can be defined as "the act of applying mechanical devices to manipulate workpieces into and out of equipment, turn parts between operations, remove scrap, and to perform these tasks in timed sequence with the production equipment so that the line can be put wholly or partially under pushbutton control at strategic stations". The first level of mechanization is the use of the hand, known in the art as end-effector, which is, in effect, a body member that is used to perform the required action without tools. In the present instance, the required action is to pickup a flat workpiece off a flat surface while maintaining the original orientation and drop the workpiece at a selected site without the use of vacuum and/or magnetic devices.
Heretofore, it has been common practice to rely on sophisticated material handling devices including complex end-effector designs and/or other ancillary mechanisms to lift a workpiece off a flat surface for presentation to a robot. The use of any of these devices requires extensive mechanical hardware thereby contributing to the cost and complexity of the system. It would be most desirable to provide a technique for lifting a workpiece off a flat surface with a minimum of relatively simple, less costly hardware wherein the workpiece maintains its orientation when the work surface of the table is penetrated for workpiece pickup.